U.S. Winter Wheat Harvest Forecast Improves

As the American wheat harvest rolls along, the government forecast last week calls for growers to bring in 1.28 billion bushels of winter wheat. The latest projection is two percent higher than the previous month’s forecast, but it’s still 23 percent lower than 2016. The forecast based on July 1 conditions projects a 49.7 bushel per acre average. Hard red winter wheat projections are estimated at 758 million bushels. Kansas is the nation’s biggest wheat producer with 324 million bushels expected to be cut this year. That number is 37 percent below last year when Kansas had an unusually good harvest, but it’s still a lot better than most experts predicted. An Associated Press report says Kansas was hit hard by wheat streak mosaic disease, brutal hail storms, and that poorly-timed late spring snowstorm. “We could have been looking at another phenomenal crop in western Kansas if not for disease pressure,” says Aaron Harries, Marketing Director for Kansas Wheat. He says there was a widespread surprise that the wheat crop in western Kansas recovered from the spring snowstorm as well as it did.